P s 

\9 0^ 



^""■iiii 







iiiiiiiill 



Mmu 




Class _^3_5Ji. 
Book .E'7?,^ 



CopyriglitN"__llil 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



THE PALACE OF 
THE HEART 

And Other Poems of Love 

PATTIE WILLIAMS GEE 




BOSTON : RICHARD G. BADGER 
1904 



Copyright 1904 by Pattie Williams GeE 
All rights reserved 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Heceiveo 

L)tC 22 19U4 

- Oopyriifiit tntry 

■ cuss <Xy XXc. Noi 

COPY B. 






PRINTED AT 

THE GORHAM PRESS 

BOSTON, U, S. A. 



THIS LITTLE VOLUME 
Is Reverently and Gratefully Dedicated to 

*h 0:|)omafii jHcfeee Proton 4- 

Priest 

Who now rests from his labors 
And whose works do follow him 



^refill, Ipeate 



THE PREFACE 

Lord, lest my mute heart break in twain 

{Its walls unequal to the strain) 

Or turn to stone; lift Thou its gates. 

Locked by Reserve too long. 

And let its surging flood. 

Its tide of penitence and love. 

Go out in song! 

"Roanoke Cottage" 
Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, 1904 



CONTENTS 



A Little Christmas Prayer 

Anchored 

A Reverie 

A Song of Love and Spring 

Bitterness 

Christmas Thoughts 

Doubt .... 

Easter Blossoms 

God^s Love . 

How Love Opened the Eyes 

Blind 
Incompleteness 
Lilies .... 
Lovers Burden 
Love Denied . 
Love's Plaint . 
Love Satisfied 

7 



of the 



Page 

44 
43 
49 

27 

43 

n 

30 
46 

37 

26 
56 
25 
42 
18 
28 
19 



Love's Tact .... 


Page 

. 36 


''Mater Mea Carolina'' . 


50 


Mother Love {A Lullaby) 


22 


Mother Love {In After Years) 


23 


Orate Pro Me 


35 


Pax Vohiscum 


45 


Success ..... 


34 


The Blind Soul 


31 


The Boon of Time . 


41 


The Child and the Flower 


36 


The Difference 


55 


The Higher Love . 


20 


The House of Vanity 


57 


The House of Character . 


5S 


The Palace of the Heart . 


13 


The Preface .... 




The Sinner and the Violets 


44 


The Sonnet .... 


54 


The Test of Love . 


21 


The Vista of Eternity 


40 



To ''Car'ida'' 


Page 

55 


Two Ways of God's Love 


. 38 


Undevelopment 


49 


Vindication .... 


53 



THE PALACE OF THE HEART 



THE PALACE OF THE HEART 

How would your soul respond to my soul's call, 
If God should lift the silence, O beloved? 

If God should lift the silence, O beloved, 
As some proud princess of the reigning blood. 
By royal mandate summoned to the Court, 
Claims there the humblest subject's privilege 
Of rendering meet submission to her liege, 
(Save in an old prerogative whereby 
None else the kingdom's sceptre sways, his peer) ; 
Within the Palace of Your Patient Heart, 
Myself would proffer you, pure blossoms 
Of a woman's reverence, which had been bent 
With pearls of gracious dew! 

And then, in some 
Quaint chamber of the royal house, among 
Strong towers buried, and removed from each 
Formality of state, whose fires are fed 
With memories and evermore between 
The crimson of their scintillating flaming 
And jewels inlaid on the crusted ceiling 
Are radiating thoughts of calm content; 
Where no rude voices stir the vital air 
Through which from soul to soul our sympathy 
Intense we'd breathe, oblivious of the tumult 



^3 



Of the world — there, at your feet, sweetheart, 

sweetheart — 
(Ah, Love, these faltering lips forgive and. Love, 
Lean nearer, lest the prying autumn leaves 
Blown by the wind against the window-pane 
Should hear,) Ah, Love, I only mean, — I'd love 

you. 

And when descends the moon-wrought, star- 
strewn fabric 
Which obscures the glare of day and falls 
The concentration of my wearied mind ; 
When throbbing temples tell of cares concealed 
From you ; mute gratitude these languid eyes 
Would smile, that sufferings from surface wounds 
Should shadow forth in silver tracery 
The test supreme of that strong love longing 
To serve you sacrificially in sharper pain. 

And when responsibilities press heavily 
And serious problems for solution clamor. 
Your Kingdom cut in twain by foreign foes 
And not one loyal sword to wage your wars, 
When Treachery broods dark within the camp 
And taints the trusted sentry at the Palace 
Gate; I'd smoothe the furrows from your troubled 
brow 



14 



And by my touch dissolve the maze of fear 
Within your brain and bid my lord go free; 
Because in loneliness my soul had learned 
The subtlety of understanding, dear. 

And seven times a day, like some meek nun 
Before the altar's alabaster rood. 
Bearing in superhuman purity 
The Corpus of the heavenly Groom, I'd seek 
Our Palace sanctuary's solemn hush. 
Where angel luxifers effulgent bend 
And angel thurifers carved censers swing, 
That I might plead with Him to yield you grace. 
Closely to clasp me in the same embrace, 
Through darkness and through storm, wherein, 

until 
" The day breaks and the shadows flee," He holds, 
Bone of His Bone, Flesh of His Flesh, His Rose, 
His Own chaste Bride, His Body Mystical ; 
And in His mercy spare us. Love, the woe 
Of shattering this divine ideal: for, dear. 
The wings of a dead lark thrust on the sea 
More potent were than vows, without that faith 
Wherewith good women love men prayerfully. 

And now, O unknown Love, O Love, unseen, 
I have unveiled my soul and feel no shame ; 
Nay, sweet, grown bold, I crave Love's consumma- 
tion! 



15 



Beyond our royal windows bloweth miles 

On miles of vines, deep-rooted, o'er-climbing 

And undermining the high walls compassing 

The Palace Gardens : and behold the fancies 

Of my dream, like many-colored rays 

Whose harmony too-swiftly vanisheth, 

A moment focus in a vision of perfection ! 

'Mid crumbling walls, the altar stands, the Palace 

Falls, and, bound with sacramental bands. 

One keeps the mystic vigil to the end ! 

Thus would my soul respond to your soul's call. 
If God should lift the silence, O beloved! 



z6 



CHRISTMAS THOUGHTS 

The prayers you have said 
And the alms you have given, 

With the angels' song 
Ascend to heaven. 

And had God stripped of all 

To the earth akin, 
Then, the Prince of Peace 

Had been born in the Inn! 

If your heart be void 

Of worldly cheer. 
Mayhap, the Christ 

Is very near! 



17 



LOVE DENIED 

Were Love's conditions blindness, poverty 

And pain, no heart would dare the contract close, 
No mind have strength such helplessness to 
choose ; 

Yet, when earth's pilgrims reach eternity 

And bend before the heavenly hierarchy, 
Over blind orbs effulgent color flows, 
The stricken limb its pain no longer knows 

And Poverty forgets its misery. 

Thus are all temporal ills by Death dissolved ; 
Thus are souls shorn of every base alloy; 
But that keen longing from the Uncreate 
Not satisfied; to be uncomforted 

Where sparrows brood — for this, no scope of joy 
The universe may hold can compensate! 



i8 



LOVE SATISFIED 

From man's birth moment bloweth with flood and 
storm 
And ever-gathering velocity, 
A driving tempest, to be lulled by thee, 

O thou Death Angel of imperial calm! 

Yet, in this storm's still centre, stands a form, 

Clear, amid flash of electricity, 

Who, from their rain-drenched, helpless misery, 
Dravrs hearts with subtle and magnetic charm. 

And what if Life's keen lightnings never cease, 
Nor springing winds of night find any rest 

From elemental rage round that low cove? — 
Still in its quiet sheltering smile in peace, 

Where vaporous clouds are powerless to burst, 
Serene and silent souls leaning on Love. 



J9 



THE HIGHER LOVE 

A beggar fed and clothed, 
A brother's load removed, 
A strong arm raised to save, 
A blossom on a grave, — 
The Father sees! 

But who, in thought and speech, 
With shining eyes on each, 
Showers love from judgment free, 
Walks with the Blessed Three 
And sees his God! 



20 



THE TEST OF LOVE 

Wherein Is love? 
In that calm will content to toll at Poverty's behest, 
While twilight falls on fragile hands folded In well- 
won rest: 

Therein is love! 

Wherein Is love? 
In that heroic soul aflame for camp and martial 

strife, 
Some humble burden bearing through a dull and 
care-worn life: 

Therein Is love! 

Wherein is love? 
In that immortal thought the poet never could 

recall, 
Which was forever lost in pity o'er a woman's fall : 

Therein is love! 

Wherein is love? 
In that lone heart dwelling in heights above life's 

primal laws; 
Its human longings crushing to exalt a righteous 
cause : 

Therein Is love! 

Wherein is love? 
Since Christ for man once paid on Calvary the bitter 

price, 
There hath been nothing holler than stern self- 
sacrifice : — 

Wherein — wherein, indeed, is love! 



21 



MOTHER-LOVE 

{A Lullaby) 

Sleep, baby, sleep! 
The Sun to kiss the mighty Sea stoops low 
And o'er the world the weird shadows blow 

So deep; 
But Mother's love sinks lower than the shadows 
And sweepeth broader than the ocean's billows; 

Sleep, baby, sleep! 

Sleep, baby, sleep! 
Life lies in mortal grief where sorrows throng 
And press upon the heart so strangely long. 

So deep; 
But Mother's love is longer than life's sorrow, 
A love o'erleaping each unseen tomorrow; 

Sleep, baby, sleep! 

Sleep, baby, sleep! 
Around thy rest a holier love doth flow, 
More tender than the mother-love can know, 

More deep; 
And He who all the babies' gold curls numbers 
Will fold thee close when tired earth-love slumbers ; 

Sleep, baby, sleep! 



22 



MOTHER-LOVE 

{In After Years) 

I thank God, son, 

You have returned, though all outgrown 

The little one whom once upon my knee, 

When home was home, 

Nor yet your father slept within his tomb, 

I soothed with crooning lullaby! 

Can you believe, dear. 

That, to pretend you near. 

My lonely lips have kissed your broken toys, 

Those emblems of my baby's joys 

Forever fled, which now a new look on his face 

Betrays the world he sought did not replace? 

Has then the great sun ceased for him to glow? 

And does each added day a blacker shadow show? 

My son, I know the foaming ocean roars 

Between its distant shores, 

Majestic, deep and white; 



23 



I know life lies in grief 

Where mortal sorrows throng, 

Without relief, 

So strangely long. 

So deep; 

But this I also know 

That all around, below. 

Above, 

Still sweepeth silently the mother-love, 

More deep than these, and, it were possible, more 

deep 
Than when in that sweet past, I sang you to your 

sleep ; 
And, little one, encompassing your soul, still lower 

than that depth 
And underneath 

The gloom of grief, of shadows and of tides 
Abides 
The Infinite ! 



24 



LILIES 

I saw her at morn in a garden fair, 
And 'mong the lilies growing there, 
I saw her wind her golden hair 

With blossoms spreading wide! 

I saw her at noon in the city's mart. 
Alone, 'neath the scorching sun's keen dart. 
Which pitilessly seared and pierced her heart; 
I saw her lilies, dried ! 

And, bitter and blind, in a meadow sweet, 
I saw her crush violets under her feet. 
And I said: " Dear, the One on the judgment seat 
Knew and loved when your lilies died! 



25 



HOW LOVE OPENED THE EYES OF THE 
BLIND 

Once a lone blind spirit wandered 
Far through Love's enchanted grove 
Deep into a Lake of Glory, 
(Each clear drop a lens of Love!) 
Laved his eyes and thrilled with rapture; 
Lifted orbs new bliss to prove; 
And beheld his heart's ideal 
As magnetic glances wove. 

Then, in gratitude, implored, 

" Take my soul's core, love, and bear 

As a pendant from thy bosom 

Or a jewel in thy hair! 

One who clasped Despair in darkness 

Feels thee loosen and set free 

Dormant and undreamed-of forces, 

Love, the mist clears, and I see! " 



26 



A SONG OF LOVE AND SPRING 

Love me, love, and tell me so, 

Human life is fleeting; 
Love me, love, and tell me so, 

'Ere my heart stop beating; 
Love me, love, and tell me so — 

All the birds are mating — 
Or, love, loveless, bid me go. 

For my heart is breaking! 



27 



LOVE'S PLAINT 

If I may not wed thee, sweet, 
If my wooing move thee naught. 

Why must my heart so wildly beat? 
Why is life with sorrow fraught? 

If my wooing move thee naught. 
Tell me how thy soul to reach ! 

Why is life with sorrow fraught? 
None can answer; many preach. 

Tell me how thy soul to reach! 

Naught were hard to heart of love. 
None can answer; many preach; 

Saints have died for God, fair dove ! 

Naught were hard to heart of love ; 

Death were warm to soul so cold. 
Saints have died for God, fair dove; 

Arms in emptiness I fold. 

Death were warm to soul so cold ; 

Life is drear, sweet, pity me ! 
Arms in emptiness I fold; 

Love, I would they folded thee! 

Life is drear, sweet, pity me ! 

Empty arms fall listlessly; 
Love, I would they folded thee! 

Bitter fate weighs heavily. 



28 



Empty arms fall listlessly; 

Is hopeless loving never done? 
Bitter fate w^eighs heavily. 

What if death be life begun? 

Is hopeless loving never done? 

Oh for a grave beside thee, dear! 
What if death be life begun, 

I would not touch thee, though so near. 

Oh for a grave beside thee, dear, 

Under massive marble pile! 
I vi^ould not touch thee, though so near; 

I w^ould only lie and smile ! 

Under massive marble pile — 
(Oh that v^e had already died!) 

I w^ould only lie and smile ; 

Yield, great Death, v^hat Life denied! 

Oh that v^e had already died ! 

Why must this heart so vv^ildly beat ? 
Yield, great Death, v^hat Life denied, 

If I may not wed thee, sweet? 



29 



DOUBT 

O longing soul, Is mortal life 
To peace and rest a passage-way, 

Or is it only vain and fruitless strife? 
Ah, who, ah, who, can say? 

O troubled soul, is then drear death 
To bid a long and last farewell, 

Or shall we draw a stronger, deeper breath ? 
Ah, who, ah, who, can tell? 

Oh shame that in dull clay should lurk 
One doubt of the Great Potter's power 

To beautify His wondrous handiwork 
In an appointed hour! 



30 



THE BLIND SOUL 

Forth In swaddling bands of passion 
From the inner, hidden shrine 
Of a temple veiled in silence, 
Groped I with this Soul of mine, 
Sightless and purposeless, not knowing 
By whom, wherefore, whither called; 
My consent unsought, ungranted; 
Thrust into hot breath; appalled 
By the sharp and subtle arrows 
Wherewith Fear's o'erwhelming train 
Falling on my mortal covering. 
Pierced me with mysterious pain. 

" Strange unrest," I cried, '* My brothers. 
Moves the state that men call * Life.' 
I would rather lie in stillness. 
Stirring neither pain nor strife " ; 
And reassuring voices answered, 
" Woman's beauty calms the soul. 
In the Lake of Love whose waters, 
Living, limpid, lustrous, roll, 
Some have laved and learnt the secret 
(Each clear drop a lens of love!) "; — 
And lo, I found a maid and kissed her 
And resolved earth's bliss to prove, 



31 



As for three sweet days we wandered 
Deep In Love's enchanted land, 
While I spake in spirit language 
Words so hard to understand 
That she turned and murmured, faltering: 
'* 'Tis the anguish of our kind ; — 
I can only urge thee onward ; 
Aspiring Soul, I too am blind." 

Then I clasped Despair In darkness, 
And the darkness seemed to melt 
As around me, hoarsely clamoring, 
Myriad hideous forms I felt. 
O'er whose ever-swelling tumult 
" The Will, unconquered, reigns in peace " 
Heard I most distinctly whispered. 
While one muttered: " No release — 
Stern, unchanging Fate decreed It; 
And with earth's primeval dawn. 
Heredity forever bound thee 
To the beasts of ages gone." 

" Yet," I flaunted in defiance, 
" Locked and chained to Sense and Time, 
There is that, I swear, within me 
Which will not consent to crime " ; 



32 



And the seeming-simple utterance 

Caused a beam to burst and shine, 

Then to brighten; soon another; 

Guiding this Bh'nd Soul of mine 

To perceive each earnest effort 

Set, a star, within the night; 

So I agonized with devils 

Till the heavens blazed with light ; 

And I saw a valiant army, 

Upward-gazing, feet steel-shod. 

Whose broad banners bore in triumph, 

" Struggle," " Progress," '' Science," " God." 

Then, I knew the solemn ordering 
Of the ignorance of birth 
Was, that man might carve a pathway 
Through the discontent of earth, 
To the Maker of the planets 
In the eternal sapphire skies, 
And behold transcendant splendor 
With his erstwhile blinded eyes! 



33 



SUCCESS 

No failures mar great Nature's perfect plan; 
But each finds wings to fan the distant fires 
Of that far star to which his soul aspires; 

So many deities mold crowns for man : 

And all life proves (deny it he who dares) 
That, yielding unto Vanity their hearts, 
Those shallow ones play well their chosen parts. 

And they whose bleared eyes glare 'tween prison 
bars. 

Free Will, in brilliance or content to plod. 
An Effort, and the Element of Time, — 
These three, an unfailing trinity sublime. 

Shall one day seat thee with thy cherished god ! 



34 



ORATE PRO ME 

O little Church sometimes abused, 
With dim confessional seldom used ; 
Round the font the children fair; 
Guardian angels everywhere; 
The aged priest's enraptured tone 
As of one chanting near the throne; 
Some day I'll be taken there 
Nor feel the solemn-scented air; 
Then of you, my friends, I plead, 
Just a bead, a single bead! 

O lonely graveyard on the hill, 
Far from shop and busy mill, 
Where the wind forever blows 
O'er buried loves and buried woes; 
(How the thought my spirit awes 
As anear the hour draws!) 
One day I'll be taken there; 
Cold the atmosphere and rare; 
Every sin to God laid bare, — 
O my friends, a breath of prayer ! 



35 



THE CHILD AND THE FLOWER 

A little child upon a calm breast lying 
A little hour, and love and life are flying; 
A little child, alone; a mother, dying. 

A leafless bud blown wild upon the winter, 
Which had been fairer for a summer's shelter: 
God watch them, child and flower, through the 
bleak weather! 



LOVE'S TACT 

That love calms most the heart's turmoil 

Whose purpose fine forbears 
To serve unasked, save when some toil 

Feeds friendship's holy fires 
With sweet herbs from its own heart's soil, 

And burdens not itself nor thee by uninvited 
cares. 



36 



GOD'S LOVE 

The mist which o'er the morning 
Casts a mantle gray and pale, 

Will be lifted by the sunshine 
As a woman lifts her veil ; 

And those solemn, sweeping shadows, 
Falling on life's lonely way, 

Give us promise of the dawning 
Of that fairer, gladder day. 

When the voiceless loves of mortals, 
Sad hearts winnowed by the rod, 

Shall at last find full fruition 
In the holy heart of God ! 



37 



TWO WAYS OF GOD'S LOVE 

" O souls earth-freed (beholding scalding tears 

Of souls earth-fettered, steeped in bitter cares, 

Who hope of your fruition fain forget, 

Prop strong the wall which Unbelief hath set 

About the heart; demands of faith forego; 

Nor pray; but say, * We do not know,') — 

I wonder what the pain must be to you, 

Who see in clearerwise, to note the dew 

Which falls, and forms a blinding mist before 

Our mortal eyes, by swelling Pride called ' lore,' 

As we approve our dust upon its power 

To mete perfected justice in Life's hour 

Above enduring Essence measuring 

From vast eternity, and treasuring 

Each strong pulsation crying light; doth know 

Those subtle yearnings as they fleetly blow 

Athwart the blackest soul! O seeing Dead, 

Tell me, if ye may tell, what God hath said 

Of these self-willed from the great Ship sprung out 

And sucked within the maelstrom of our modern 

doubt ? — 
Will they in sheer dismay grope back to Him 
And, unrepentant, vaunt their scorn to trim 
And keep their lamps bright, as the simple did ? 



38 



And will He kiss them on each cheek and bid 

Them enter? Put a premium upon 

Such pride, because He is the Pitying One? 

Or will those stinging words from placid lips, 

' I know ye not,' scourge keen as with thin whips 

And seethe like lava in their stricken souls, 

Until the dross is gone and the gold rolls 

In love adoring all about His feet? " — 

Then calmly answered the great Dead : " Unmeet 

For us within to break eternal seals. 

Sufficient for man's needs what God reveals; 

Else had the voice of risen Lazarus 

Rung clear as Easter chimes, forestalling us! 

Mark this: unlimited by aught writ here, 

Christ hath made plain the full that flesh can bear 

And left the rest with love, meek to obey. 

Presuming not to tread the Extraordinary Way 

Omnipotence can pave ! Of this be sure, — 

The will to lift a brother must endure: 

And go in gladness and not grief to pray 

That men may learn to trust the Humble Way; 

To walk in confidence therein and know 

Omniscient love lies deeper than earth's woe." 



39 



THE VISTA OF ETERNITY 

There is no stream too sinuous 

To somehow find the sea, 
No forest path too winding 

To reach the open lea; 

And that which men of shallow minds 
From superstition rarely free, 

Have made abhorrent by their canting. 
Deep souls conceive to be 

But a bowlder in Life's river or 
Across its road a fallen tree. 

Beyond which in calmness stretches 
The matchless vista of eternity! 



40 



THE BOON OF TIME 

Urge not a dearth of talents given 

Nor add to sloth the crime 
Of gross ingratitude, 
While daily there descends from heaven 

God's wondrous boon of time. 

See how each morn the rising sun 
Pours forth in generouswise 
For due development, 

A living, breathing, benison 
Under this gracious guise. 

Not more or less inherent power. 

Not the dead Lazarus, 

By special call Christ raised, 
But just the fullness of each hour 

Well used, is genius! 



41 



LOVE'S BURDEN 

When One In pitying love, vouchsafed to him the 

poet's gift, 
The Tempter said his soul he could uplift 
And that his heart which hitherto in sad repression 

pined, 
At last, could find 
An utterance ; so he made covenant the cutting cord 

to loose, 
And, in pretense of truce, 
To slip, at dead of night, the burden he had borne so 

long, 
Upon an unsuspecting world, disguised in some 

sweet song! 
But, when he probed old wounds, heart-deep; 
Dissected love, whose agonizing tendrils creep 
And clutch, with that persistent force 
Which leaves no power for nature's course ; 
And knew that drastic measures when applied 
To save the mother's life, oft lose the child, — 
He said: " I will retract the treacherous pledge; 
And in the secret chambers of that heart whose 

privilege 
It is in silence and in loneliness to grieve, 
I am content, with tears and flowers and prayers, 

my dead to leave." 
Then through his soul a clarion sounded clear: 
" Have thou no fear. — 
Great Wisdom bound the burden there; 
Great Mercy sendeth strength to bear." 



42 



BITTERNESS 

A babe upon the breast, 
A mother's first caress; 
Life's discords hushed 
In love's calm rest! 

A babe upon the breast, 
A mother's last caress, 
Heartstrings drawn tense; 
And memories for recompense ! 

Nor babe upon the breast, 
Nor first nor last caress; 
Ah, this is bitterness 
That hath no recompense! 



ANCHORED 

Brother, is your ship still struggling 

On the ocean tempest-tossed? 
Are you fearful lest her treasures. 

Love, and child, and home, be lost? 
Listen, brother — 
O'er the roar the Pilot's moan : 

" Courage; she is safely anchored 
In the calm harbor of the sea before the throne ! " 



43 



THE SINNER AND THE VIOLETS 

He came In springtime when the air was thick 

With perfume of delicious violets, 

And the earth lay fair as Eden lay before 

The fall! He went: (O weak and erring child 

Of that frail mother of us all!) and those 

Meek, pitying flowers gathered up themselves 

Into a pall of penitence for one 

Who, shunned and scorned, should henceforth, 

clothed in purple. 
Walk alone with God I 



A LITTLE CHRISTMAS PRAYER 

Sweet, heavenly babe. Creator mild, 
Lying in love on Mary's breast. 

Immaculate and undefiled. 

O'er whom God's angels sang and smiled ; 

Grant me the pure heart of a child, 
The calm all-blest of sin confessed. 

Sweet, heavenly Babe, Creator mild, 
Lying in love on Mary's breast! 



44 



PAX VOBISCUM 

(To I. B. J.) 

If I could know your heart's supreme desire, 
If I could pierce through its devouring fire, 
Where this, unscorched, lies quivering, white and 

clear. 
Its consummation would I wish you, dear. 
But since these eyes may not behold the place 
Which shrines your anguish — nor the void space. 
The empty chamber, flame-swept, phantom-wrought, 
For which your soul has bargained, sold and 

bought. 
Take thou the yearning of my own heart's core : — 
God's soundless peace enfold you evermore. 
Soothing the troubled Presence with its balm. 
Filling the empty chamber with its calm ! — 
Such peace be yours, dear, while the evening nears. 
Sweetening and deepening with the dying years! 



45 



EASTER BLOSSOMS 

{In memory of my little neighbor M. B. D. Jr.) 

'Twas Easter Day; and tender gentian flowers 
Kissed into life by April's earliest showers 

I placed with reverence in a quaint old vase 
Beneath a shadowy portrait of a face 

Of which the house held scores, and, kneeling, 

prayed 
That God into a heart with sadness weighed 

Would pour thoughts of the resurrection life. 
Which is forever, past earth's stain and strife. 

Then, left them there (O faithless heart!) to dry 
As oft before I'd seen my blossoms die. 

But when at evening from my work I came, 
To my amazement they were still the same, 

Still wet and radiant in their sapphire glow. 
" The flowers of God's fair Garden ever blow," 

A Low Voice whispered; and the night forlorn 
Its restless vigils told until the morn ; 



46 



When, once again, I sought my baby's face 
And strange, new odors hallowed all the place. 

Over the blooms I bent my sorrowing head 
And In my desolation murmured: 

" Unearthly perfumes from these blossoms spring ! " 
" The Incense he Is offering to the King 

Is signified," I heard the Low Voice say, 
And, marveling, to my duties took my way. 

And so from sun to sun the days of spring 

Like birds slipped from the nest were on the wing. 

The severed stems that sank no roots In rest 

Lived as though drinking at the earth's full breast, 

(Even as pure spirits freed from space and time 
Need naught material In that blissful clime.) 

Their deep, rich petals paled to azure hue, 
Lopped back, and lo, another mystery grew: 

Another blossom blew of white and gold. 
The mystery of life through death. Behold 



47 



An oriole of fructifying seed, 
Great Nature's continuity and meed 

For slumberous winter in the mold! My fear 
Sunk to dead stillness, and the Voice rang clear, 

" It is the crown of life he has attained ! 
In holy calm, unfathomable, unfeigned. 

Soothed by the lapping of the crystal sea, 
He lives and loves through all eternity! " 



And when the octave of the feast was past 
A soul lay plastic in God's hands at last ! 



48 



A REVERIE 

Watching the moon full robed in light, 
Upon the deep blue bosom of the night, 
Resting her face serene, 
I heard the angels' harps between 
The low notes of the stars: 

And, as I gazed, our Lady bent, 
From exaltation in the saints' content, 
Over Day's distant whirl. 
Which dropped in space — a liquid pearl 
Dissolved in midnight dew! 



UNDEVELOPMENT 

He knew no envy of the good that mortals reap, 
But one wee flower in its supreme perfection moved 
The deep waters of his being, and he wept ! 



49 



MATER MEA CAROLINA 

"First at Bethel; 
Farthest at Gettysburg; 
Last at Appomattox." 

Mater mea Carolina, 
O my Mother, Carolina, 

I have seen the world's confines 
And grown weary with its visions; 

Soothe me with thy sighing pines. 

Shield me with thy mighty mountains 
While I lean upon that breast, 

Where the prodigal and heartsick 
Ever find a welcome rest. 

Then, in accents low and tender, 
Lead my soul to regions vast; 

Open wide those gates of splendor 
Where the great Confederate passed ! 

Ah, I know, though late seceding, 
Thou wast foremost of them all; 

That his veins thy blood was coursing. 
Who was first to bleed and fall!^ 



50 



When Fate's thrilling bugle summoned, 
Leaving homes and youthful joys, 

Uprose a hundred thousand men 

And twenty thousand beardless boys!^ 

Not in all the ancient ages, 
Nor in modern wars' alarms, 

Has a patriot state or nation 
Answered thus a call to arms! 

I can see them as they gathered 
From the west and from the coast, 

Pressing on to Bethel's triumph. 
Vanguard of the Southern host! 

For thy honor and the hearthstones 
Of the loved and the revered. 

These, my Mother, calm, reluctant, 
Dared to fight and no man feared! 

'Twas thy son, O Carolina, 

Who, that matchless flag unfurled, 

Sailing out upon the ocean. 

Wrapt a glory round the world !^ 



51 



And at Gettysburg, undaunted 
By its blood and booming shell, 

Pettigrew and his immortals 

Plunged into the mouth of hell!* 

Once alone I felt thee falter. 
Once I mutely turned my head, 

Lest I see thee bowed in anguish 
Over forty thousand, dead! — ^ 

Yet at mournful Appomattox 

Thou didst take thy last sad stand, 

Thou, a mater dolorosa 

Unto half that haggard band!® 

And since that dark day in springtime. 
When a nation's sun went down, 
Mater mea Carolina, 
O my Mother, Carolina, 
Thou hast borne a noble patience, 
Greater than thy war's renown! 



52 



VINDICATION 

The cheeks of Innocence were wet and white 

As through the solemn, groping night of spleen 

And persecution dire, she went sad-eyed 

And sombre-clothed In sorrow for thee 

And the need thou hadst a stricken soul to nerve ; 

But now once more thy day hath dawned and thou 

May'st burst the fast-sealed tomb of stern Reserve, 

And then come forth In resurrection robes 

To face the sun, which shines for thee, and bids 

Thee hope and smile as little children smile 

When clouds have passed and rain is done; then 

kneel 
To the Unjustly-Accused, the Vindicating One, 
And He will rest His hands in special 
Benediction over all thy years to come. 



53 



THE SONNET 

The poet thinks In metre thoughts that force 
The passionate o'erflowing of a spring 
Sunk deep within his heart, whose utmost ring 

Lies In the heart last comforted ; whose source 

Is rhythmic drops of hope and vain remorse, 
Whereof hope triumphs, as Its ripples sing 
Their melody through parched hearts, withering, 

And lilies rise along its winding course: 

And sometimes In the mind's keen light, when, clear 
As crystals 'neath the sun, great bubbles gleam 
And brim the spring with shining, lustrous 
grace. 
Ere darkness compass all the mystic air. 

He launches far adown that wondrous stream. 
His jewel thoughts each in a sonnet case! 



54 



THE DIFFERENCE 

Some souls gather joy and strife, 

Sprung from seeds which Fate has scattered, 
Loosely o'er the fields of life; 

And others drink immortal bliss 
And the agony of dying, — 

Concentrated in one kiss! 



TO " CARIDA." 

Fluffs of down that fleck the skies 
Veil the sun with mellow dyes. 
Softly screen your sweet, meek eyes, 
Till the evening falls! 

Broad expanse of heaven's blue. 
Liquid, star-shot through and through, 
Keep the darkness bright for you, 
Till the new day dawns! 



55 



LofC. 



INCOMPLETENESS 
(To G. L. F.) 

'TIs hard to leave one's cherished work undone, 
And so humanity chafes at Time's chain 
And drags impatiently its heavy train 

Of adverse circumstance, the while the sun 

On full-blown roses marks decay begun. 

And ocean's rims push back the waves again ; 
The while, prime reached. Age comes with staff 
and pain 

And retrospection when the field is won. 

But the unrealized, ah, this, how passing sweet! 
The soul's enfolded wings by God were given 
To mount and soar above those shining towers 
Built in eternity still incomplete: 

And man divines the ecstasy of heaven — 
Never to reach the zenith of his powers ! 



S6 



THE HOUSE OF VANITY 

I saw a house upon a sandy shore, 

Built of dry bark and seaweed — nothing more. 

A fearful fire's fury swept that coast 

And wrought strange havoc. Many souls were lost. 

I saw a wind-swept space, the ocean's plane: 
I saw no house, I heard the driving rain. 



57 



THE HOUSE OF CHARACTER 

I Cor. Ill: 12, 13, 14. 

I had a vision of an edifice 

Built on the border of a dark abyss. 

Its walls were made of wood of youthful dreams 
Which rested upon hay and stubble beams, 

And much I marveled that it did not tip 
Over that yawning, slimy brink, and slip 

Into the sullen waters, black and deep — 

So treacherous was its height, the cliff so steep. 

But Sorrow came, calm, somber-clothed, and tall, 
And firmly propped it that it might not fall. 

Forcing beneath it a broad, rocky bed. 

" These stones are tears petrified," he said, 

In answer to my anxious, eager look: 

And, though the tottering fabric reeled and shook, 

It did not fall. It settled on its base: 
And then another, with a jewel case, 

Did swing great ropes of rubies linked with gold, 
With sapphires and with hiddenite untold 



S8 



Upon its battlements and turret rails, 

And studded all the walls with diamond nails 

Until the wood lay like thin films between, 
And o'er the sides the stubble fell like sheen. 

(And he, I learned, was Gracious Words and Deeds 
Who day and night with human sufferers pleads.) 

And then before the house One took His place 
( I think I never saw so grand a Face ! ) 

And with a taper lighted from the stars 

He touched a wisp of straw. The diamond bars 

Broke into many million lights and shone 
In dazzling glory as the flames leaped on 

From jeweled wall to parapet and tower, 
Bathing the earth in an effulgent shower 

Which mortal eyes and brain could scarcely bear. 
Then the spent flames died out. But He drew near. 

I hear e'en now His voice. He took my hand : 
" My son," He said, '' This house shall ever stand 

In immortality. It is the stern, 

Strong House of Character. It cannot bum. 



59 



NOTES ON "MATER MEA CAROLINA" 



^ Henry Lawson Wyatt of North Carolina, killed 
at Big Bethel, was the first Confederate soldier to 
fall in pitched battle. 

^With a voting population of 112,000 North 
Carolina sent 125,000 men to the Confederate 
Army, or one-fifth of the entire Southern forces. 

^A North Carolinian, James Iredell Waddell, 
floated the Confederate flag around the world. 

*In the famous charge at Gettysburg the North 
Carolina soldiers under Pettigrew forced their way 
farther than any other division of the army. 

^ North Carolina's total loss was over 40,000, 
being more severe by about 23,000 than that of 
any other Southern state. 

^Over half of the men who surrendered at Ap- 
pomattox were North Carolinians. 



63 




:■"';: ;H,k!;|:;!,|!i!P!iiiii!:| 







i&liiiBlli!' 




:iiiiiiii 



